Supporting workers with long covid to sustain work: what do we know and what next?

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Agenda:

Welcome and introduction, Chair Professor Ewan MacDonald

Presentation: It’s a rollercoaster – long COVID workers’ lived experiences adjusting to work, Professor Jo Yarker and Professor Karina Nielsen. (15mins)

Presentation: Experiences of Long COVID in healthcare workers: findings from the NHS Check study, Dr Brendan Dempsey

Presentation: Update on current activities to protect and support long COVID workers, Dr Clare Rayner (15mins) 

Plenary discussion, Chaired by Professor Ewan MacDonald

Brief summary:

Workers with long COVID continue to face challenges in accessing the support needed to stay in and thrive at work. In this webinar, we will share findings from two recently published research studies and update on policy and practice. In our plenary discussion we explore the next steps and summarise with the calls to action needed support workers with long COVID to stay in and stay well in work.

Speaker Bios:

Professor Ewan MacDonald

Professor Ewan MacDonald is the Head of the Healthy Working Lives Group, which he established at the University of Glasgow in 1990. He divides his time between academic activities and the provision of clinical Occupational Health and Safety services through his company MacOH Ltd. Ewan is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London, and a Fellow and Past President of the UK Faculty of Occupational Medicine. He is a Founder and Past President of the Occupational Medicine section of the Union of European Medical Specialists. In 2015, by invitation of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Ewan presented the C.O. Sappington Memorial Lecture at the spring American Occupational Health Conference. In 2018, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Faculty of Occupational Medicine for his services to Occupational Health both in Ireland and internationally. Numerous past honorary appointments have included Honorary Colonel of 225 Medical Regiment for 6 years. Ewan developed the Healthy Working Lives paradigm, which was adopted as policy in Scotland. Subsequently, he stimulated its review, which led to the Health Works Policy. During 2011, he chaired the implementation group of the first Health Works pilot to introduce a redesigned musculoskeletal service in the Health Service in Scotland with the aim of ensuring a more patient-centered, faster service with a focus on return to maximum function, including work, where appropriate. Ewan also proposed the OHS Extra service, which was the forerunner of the "Fit for Work" service across the UK.

Professor Jo Yarker

Jo is Professor of Occupational Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London and Managing Partner of Affinity Health at Work. Her research and practice focuses on preventing, promoting and supporting workers to stay in and thrive in work.

Professor Karina Nielsen

Karina Nielsen is Professor of Work Psychology at the University of Sheffield. Her key area of research focuses on interventions to create healthy workplaces and how to support workers thriving at work. A particular interest is the focus on how to support workers returning to work after long-term sickness absence.

Dr Clare Rayner

Dr Clare Rayner is a retired occupational physician and since 2020 has led on the Society of Occupational Medicine's multidisciplinary guidance on Long Covid for workers and managers. She has advised on Covid internationally, most recently in Malaysia, Australia and Ireland, and was an author on the World Health Organization's living guideline rehabilitation guidelines on Long Covid. Clare was cofounder and a member of the Post Acute Covid Syndrome International Working Group (2020-21) alongside Dr David Putrino of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. She is an adviser to the Long Covid Support charity and a Long Covid Kids champion.

Dr Brendan Dempsey

Dr Brendan Dempsey is a post doctoral research fellow in University College London working on NHS Check, a longitudinal cohort study exploring the mental health and wellbeing of NHS staff in England.

Chair: Professor Ewan MacDonald

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